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Vector Control District Manager – Gone now, not later.

by • April 5, 2010

At the Thursday March 18th meeting of the Orange County Vector Control Districtâ€™s Manager Gerard Goedhart was given notice by theÂ District Board that they were exercising their right to terminate, without cause, in six months. I’m not quite certain what Goedhardt did toÂ annoy the Board President Joe Anderson of San Clemente, but he must have done something. The OC Register’s Terry Sforza reported back on March 23rd that “Anderson said he plans toÂ present a succession plan to the board at its April 15 meeting.” On Monday, Terry posted this story regarding the latest conflict at the District over contracting out some pest control work as well as a threat from District Manager Goedhart over my post quoting from his resignation letter. Goedhart wrote in his weekly memo to the board; “Trustees should be concerned that one of you released my March 15 confidential memo to Chris Prevatt (of The LiberalOC blog). Don’t blame me if this sensitive information surfaces in public.”

Those plans changed when Anderson called a Special Meeting for Monday April 5th at 3:30 p.m. to discuss this personnel matter in closed session.

Gerard Goedhart

LiberalOC’s Bill Spaulding was at the meeting to see what happened and filed the following report:

The meeting began with a chance for public comment. I did not arrive until after that and the closed session had begun. When I arrived, I saw a binder with a label, “visitor log.” I asked if I was required to sign in before attending the meeting. My polite question was met with a universally unfriendly and condescending reply. Cool heads prevailed and I was begrudgingly permitted to wait in the reception area until the closed session ended. That occurred shortly after 4:00.

The board announced its decision. The board voted to “relieve Mr. Goedhart of his responsibilities immediately.” They appointed Michael Hearst as interim director. The board secretary announced the roll call vote. Not a single vote against the motion. There were several cities absent from the meeting. A very few cities, including Santa Ana, were announced as vacant. Golly, one could have fun with that one…

After announcing the vote, the meeting was adjourned until the next regularly scheduled board meeting. The whole thing lasted less than an hour.

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4 comments for “Vector Control District Manager – Gone now, not later.”

claudia

April 6, 2010 at 10:51 am

Wow. Slow news day or what? You had nothing to write about except for your interaction with receptionists and how you as a great reporter were late for the meeting. Maybe since you were late you didn’t get all the important facts and that is why your article sucks? Lets try harder next time to get some facts.

Since I had nothing to contribute to the public comments, I saw no need to witness that part of the meeting. Having witnessed public comments in a variety of government entities, I find them usually non-productive. As I was interested, perhaps in error, only in the result of the closed door session, I arrived early for those results. Regardless of my (perceived) tardiness, the reception that greeted me was less than welcoming to a member of the public, media or otherwise.

As it happened, I was fully aware that there was a closed door session. I am fully aware of what that means. I neither attempted nor asked to enter it.

Most importantly, since you are displeased with my reporting, I wonder. Is there a factual error anywhere in this post? Please offer corrections and I will acknowledge them accordingly.

Thank you for your interest.

just...asking?

April 6, 2010 at 4:07 pm

Maybe threats of legal actions as reported by the register made the board move to cover its a@@. Going to be tough to prove performance as an issue since district is one of the few county agencies that is fiscally healthy.

This is strange that personnel information was leaked by someone, that is an issue the board may live to regret.